apropos Powerhouse. do not always forget that a nation consists of males and females. Germany has 4 x male and 2 x female world cups = 6 world cups (and many Women EuroCup Wins) look at the Women Soccer Section here to learn more about. current Fifa women soccer ranking: #2 (Fifa sound integrate a ranking of both as well: dual-gender)
I had considered Marvelous Marta, but didn't we recently learn that it takes a team, not just one player.... And she did not play in the youth competition, which is a different animal altogether...
The source of both is: „ Doping in Deutschland von 1950 bis heute aus historisch - soziologischer Sicht im Kontext ethischer Legitimation “ in 43 Sites of Text Football is mentioned only 1 time. A Letter send from FIFA- Member Prof. Dr. Mihailo Andrejevic to the DLV(German athletic association) regarding small ammounts of ephedrin by three Members of the 1966 WC-Team. Ephedrin was at that time one of the most used Medizin to cure the flu. No second Probes was taken and no Doping claims was made. You should also consinder that the Doping Effekt of Ephedrin is relativ small. In a longterm Studie it wasn´t even reproduceable. (Michael E. Powers: Ephedra and Its Application to Sport Performance: Another Concern for the Athletic Trainer?) Most of the Projekt regarding the DLV, DOSB (German Olympic Sport association) and DRB (Germand cycling association). Primary they research the historical development of Doping in Germany and the widley use in 1970-1980. No evidence regarding Football or the German Nationalteam football team. You should futher consider that this research Teams wants more Money, so they need to show that their researchs are important. Furthermore Doping events in Olympic games/Cycling/Swimming are nothing new, and Germany is neither a very clean nor a very dirty Country regarding Doping. To Remember: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doping_cases_in_athletics more then 1000 cases world wide...every country involved - leading country by the way is the USA (187 cases) Please read: Waddington & Smith 2007 Doping and Doping Control in Europe. Performance Enhancing Drugs, elite sports and leisure time Sport in Denmark, Great Britain, East and West Germany, Poland, France, Italy You will find that every country has is own Dopingsystem - the Netherlands also.... Their is also a discussion about Football in this book: The Autor comes to the conclusion that many Teams experimented with Doping, but dont´t use it anymore because the small Effekt in football compared to the relativ high Risk.
One will not find many cases if the state is actively involved. Sorry to say but this part is really laughable:
And which state is not involved? (Translate from Google from german) http://www.weltfussball.de/news/_n906738_/holland-buch-deckt-doping-vergangenheit-auf/ In the heyday of Dutch football to have been doped in Oranje team on a large scale - also in the Vice World Champion teams of 1974 and 1978 of this summary is Guido Derksen, author of the book ("soccer mysteries Disenchanted" Voetbalmysteries Opgelost. ".. "), which appears in this week. Derksen spoke with doctors, players and coaches. Frits boiler, Association of Dutch Football Association KNVB doctor from 1968 to 1999, admits in the book for the first time, to have known of doping use. Affected was allegedly the national team during the World Cup finals in Germany in 1974 and 1978 in Argentina. The Oranje was then each failed to hosts only in the finale. Boilers have, however, tells him to have personally never used doping substances, Derksen told the TV station NOS. "Football and doping, which is not a mystery. Each time gulped," the two-time Vice World Champion Johnny Rep is quoted in the book. Rep had confessed drug abuse some time ago. The former national player also raised allegations against his former club AS St. Etienne. So had "hung on a drip" in his time with the French in the 1979/80 season all players one day before a European Cup match against PSV Eindhoven. Concrete Rep was not.
Doping + not given penalty for Germany + disallowed goal for Germany and still they couldn't beat Germany. And the Netherlands only qualified because they cheated against Belgium. What does PuckVanHeel have to say about that?
I don't see a penalty. I see Higuain fishing for a foul knowing Neuer is coming for the ball and knowing he has no chance and going for it anyways. Got the ball too. Good thing Klose is smarter than Higuain otherwise Romero would've taken him out on the other end when he caught a ball with his leg stretched out. Anyways, Argentina can hardly complain about lax refereeing in the final. The biggest joke was Schweinsteiger getting the first yellow card of the game for a soft foul when Argentina got away with tougher ones before. Considering the game as a whole I cannot take it seriously when Argentinians complain that the refereeing favored Germany. Why are you butting in anyways? I'm just having a go at PuckVanHeel because of his extreme anti Germany posting history.
As a start: where's actually the state involvement? Where's the hiding of positives for over 50 years? And oh, experimenting with steroids and blood doping easily beats usage of (very detectable) amphetamines. But that's by the by. What matters though is that a poster above brought up the active involvement of the state in sports; for bad and for worse, for good and more shady purposes. http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads...ball-powerhouse.2007735/page-12#post-30978462
An excellent piece is the first chapter of Kuper's "Football against the enemy". Especially the part about the hotel assignment and how a German journalist knocked at Gullit his door during the night, to psyche him out. But the whole chapter is excellent. Then there are also some things that aren't in the book like how the training pitch assigned by the organisation (as part of the base camp) was 'unexpectedly' vacated by two amateur teams. http://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:110610773:mpeg21:a0254
I will still root for Holland whenever they are not playing against Germany. Because they are that good and they are our neighbours and friggin` derserve a title after all. A few hatemongers on the internet wont change that the Dutch are great people and despite all the mocking are great sports.
Totally agree, I hate that this has now turned into an anti-Holland thread for some reason. Answering irrational hate towards Germany by attacking the poster's nationality is one of those methods of internet arguing that I hate so much. As for the haters - now I thought you had brought up everything from doping to bribery to 'adidas is German and makes the ball' to referees all wanting Germany to win. But now you have another one - somebody knocked on Ruud Gullit's hotel door. Is there no shame to how low Germans can sink? Knocking on a door? How is the poor player expected to play football after this?
What's irrational anyway; the denial of 'tricks' by some hosts in history? Whatever, it doesn't seem controversial to say that active state involvement - for good and for bad - has helped. That was the thing.
The German team was the fittest at the world cup. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/...-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well Plus France made the stupid decision not to take Nasri..
The point was that you are complaining about some soft foul not called against Netherlands while your own NT players commit far harsher ones, even dangerous ones, that are not called.
Interesting article. I enjoyed this comment even more: JR CT 18 July 2014 I find that modern sport is missing an element of athleticism that used to make sport so engaging. All these guys are trained in such a manner that it has all become more about the most conditioned athlete rather than a natural talent for playing a game with a style that stands out from all the rest. How many wonderful athletes that could take your breath away with their style are missing from sport because they are not a certain body type trained like a robots? These are the best conditioned athletes and obviously that makes perfect sense in a game requiring running and jumping. But soccer has been incredibly boring in recent Cups because it's all so methodical and data driven. Several late round games were just awful to watch because there were almost no moments of breathtaking soccer by individuals or combos. Most sports have been taken over by the 6'3"+ crowd that has the cardio of track athletes. Soccer used to have 10 guys like Messi in any given year but he's so rare now he really stands out. Does anyone even remember Haji from Romania? He was Messi before Messi yet several players are in his era were as good or better. This has happened in baseball too. Defensive switches are computer driven against cardio robots who can't even hit or bunt against a ridiculous switch. Striking out like Dave Kingman is perfectly acceptable now. Soccer isn't what it once was because of computer matrix and training that honestly takes away the beautiful players we all used to love.
I think this is a case of nostalgia clouding one's view. There were plenty of great moments of individual technical play; Van Persie's headed goal, James' volley against Uruguay, Robben's burning of Piquè before burying the dagger for Spain, Cuadrado's at-times mesmerizing dribbling. And as for combos, I don't want to toot our horn too much, but Germany, the winners, had an attack totally based around passing, combination football. Same with 2010 Spain.
I doubt that guy has ever witnessed _Hagi_ and he may be right with Argentina's approach at this wc but over all has a false concept of football in his mind. So if he's too lazy to enjoy the beauty of football he better start watching only the highlights of a match.
They are not a powerhouse. you are just deceived like the majority of soccer fans. Germany success is attributed to the endless doping program and the immortal intimate relationship with FIFA. last week Nigeria female youth team was robbed in the final when the ref disallowed a clear goal just right before the final whistle which took the game to extra time and thats when the doping effect shows its magic.
I am sorry but you must know that Germany team has a different law. this collision would have resulted in a penalty if the team was brazil, Italy, England, ..etc. but against Gerrmany it is a fair intervention by Neuer. In fact, I am still surprised that Rizzoli did not send Higuain off for his harsh head tackle.